Don't Let the Pigeon Writing Center

This summer I have been having a lot of fun with trying out different worksheets for our early literacy center (new since February) and seeing what works.  I learned that writing about pet dinosaurs worked in a big way.  Almost everybody who took a worksheet turned one in.  On the other hand, I learned that writing about what "we dig" (in terms of cool stuff, not dirt) was not so popular.  All of the worksheets disappeared, but we didn't get many results other than scribbles.  While I agree that scribbling is working on an early literacy skill, when one child scribbles on 50 pages at a time, it is frustrating.  Our newest station, based on the Don't Let the Pigeon book series by Mo Willems, has been getting excellent results over the past week.  

We always start off by creating a sign.  Our signs include any directions and tells which early literacy skills we are practicing.  At this station, kids are filling in The Pigeon's word bubble on our worksheet.  When they finish writing, they "mail" their worksheet in our mailbox.  We have learned that the mailbox is extremely popular.  Even if you don't have paper out for the kids to "mail", they will find something.  We have found books, dvds, story time crafts, and much more that have been "mailed".

I haven't decided what we will do with our finished products yet.  We made binder books out of our dinosaur worksheets and we didn't do anything with our dig ones.  I am hoping to somehow tie it into our 100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten program as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is one of the books that we promote.

Below are some of our finished products.  I like to ask the kids only for their first name so they aren't identifiable.  This makes it easier for our community relations specialist to post pictures on Facebook.

This one is honestly my favorite so far.  It makes me smile every time I read it.

 I am impressed by this one because somebody is definitely familiar with the book series.

 I was sharing these with our community relations specialist and she pointed out that almost all of the word bubbles deal with food.  It is funny to see what kids are concerned with.

I like the note at the end.  It is like 2 people are having a conversation.

 This one is great because not only does it deal with food, but she adds in another popular Willems character-Elephant!

 More food.

These are just some of the results after one week of doing this topic.  I hope to have it out until mid-September when our fall story time schedule begins and our Post Office returns.